Take control of your palette and paint better pictures in minutes with our handy guide to creative colour mixing
1 CHOOSE PIGMENTS OVER COLOURS
While there are countless named colours across the many paint brands, it is worth remembering that most of them are made from around 30 common pigments. It is far easier to predict how single-pigment paints will react in a mix as there are less variables.
2 BE STRATEGIC
Squeeze out colours at random all over your palette and you are in danger of it resembling an accidental Jackson Pollock. However, if your palette is organised, your painting will follow suit. Develop a strategy for laying out colours that suit you. Ideas to consider might be laying out pigments tonally or in “rainbow order”. Consider placing the white at the centre, as you will mix almost all other colours with it at some point.
3 IDENTIFYING COLOURS
Accurately isolating and identifying individual colours you want to recreate with your palette is key to good mixing and it helps to be aware of how lighting affects a colour. Plein air painters like Monet went to great lengths to observe shifts in colour on a single subject throughout the day, but similar shifts occur indoors. Indirect daylight can change the temperature and hue of a subject.
4 START OUT LIGHT
Denne historien er fra May 2019-utgaven av Artists & Illustrators.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 2019-utgaven av Artists & Illustrators.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Still life IN 3 HOURS
Former BP Portrait Award runner-up FELICIA FORTE guides you through a simple, structured approach to painting alla prima that tackles dark, average and light colours in turn
Movement in composition
Through an analysis of three masterworks, landscape painter and noted author MITCHELL ALBALA shows how you can animate landscape composition with movement
Shane Berkery
The Irish-Japanese artist talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about the innovative concepts and original colour combinations he brings to his figurative oil paintings from his Dublin garden studio
The Working Artist
Something old, something new... Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL has expert advice for balancing fresh ideas with completing half-finished work
Washes AND GLAZES
Art Academy’s ROB PEPPER introduces an in-depth guide to incorporating various techniques into your next masterpiece. Artwork by STAN MILLER, CHRIS ROBINSON and MICHELE ILLING
Hands
LAURA SMITH continues her new four-part series, which encourages you to draw elements of old master paintings, and this month’s focus is on capturing hands
Vincent van Gogh
To celebrate The Courtauld’s forthcoming landmark display of the troubled Dutch master’s self-portraits, STEVE PILL looks at the stories behind 10 of the most dramatic works on display
BRING THE drama
Join international watercolour maestro ALVARO CASTAGNET in London’s West End to paint a dramatic street scene
Serena Rowe
The Scottish painter tells STEVE PILL why time is precious, why emotional responses to colour are useful, and how she finds focus every day with the help of her studio wall
Bill Jacklin
Chatting over Zoom as he recovers from appendicitis, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about classic scrapes in New York and his recent experiments with illustration
